Sacramento Kings: Conflicting reports of a Sabonis surgery confuse fans
By Logan Struck
While Sacramento Kings fans worry about what is going down in the NBA Summer League, star big man Domantas Sabonis is making headlines.
Reports suggest Lithuania’s national team coach, Kazys Maksvytis, said Sabonis underwent surgery on his thumb (via BasketNews). So, for a few hours, Sacramento fans believed their All-NBA center had surgery until different reports suggested otherwise.
A league source tells The Sacramento Bee Kings center Domantas Sabonis did not have surgery on his thumb, confirming the news from @James_HamNBA. Sabonis has been following strict rehab protocol and was not able to play for the Lithuanian national team this summer.
— Jason Anderson (@JandersonSacBee) July 12, 2023
While these conflicting reports can be confusing, we believe Domantas Sabonis did not have surgery. Kazys Maksvytis seems to be under the impression that Sabonis is not playing in the FIBA World Cup this year because of this alleged thumb surgery.
Conflicting reports like this are bad for the media, as many major outlets picked up the Sabonis surgery story. Bleacher/Report published a story about the surgery and theScore plastered it on Twitter.
In a press conference, Maksvytis said this about Sabonis (via BasketNews):
"“The main reason behind Domantas availability this summer was his contract and health… He tried to recover without the surgery, but it didn’t work, and he lost time. After the surgery, everything takes longer.”"
Domantas Sabonis, surgery or not, is likely taking the off-season to recover and be healthy and ready to play day one of the 2023-24 season. While we assume he wishes to represent Lithuania in the FIBA World Cup, it was a good decision to rehab instead.
These conflicting reports have caused confusion among Sacramento fans, as many do not know whether Sabonis had surgery or not.
Maybe Domantas Sabonis has surgery on his OTHER THUMB pic.twitter.com/OkTIV0eHYJ
— SactownBabyGiraffe (@TimMaxwell22) July 12, 2023
Domantas Sabonis is coming off a fantastic season, even after playing through a thumb fracture. On his way to an All-NBA 3rd Team selection, Sabonis averaged 19.1 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 7.3 assists with 61/37/74 shooting splits.
Domantas Sabonis led the NBA in rebounds per game while being second among centers in assists per game. The three-time All-Star dominated last season and looks to continue to improve with an upgraded Kings 2023-24 roster.
